'Kiki' was a nickname my parents used for me, independently of each other (divorced and living in distant cities) during my fairly androgynous, genderblended, 1980s adolescence.

My mother used it as an epithet, my father as an endearment (often as "Kiki Dee"). She had fits when I wore skirts [and had sat me down with the dictionary definition of 'lesbian' when I was ten ... possibly as her coming out? What did I know? I was ten.]. He gave me his old shirts and milspec glasses frames to wear with said skirts and v. short spiky hair.

I only learned that "kiki" was an adjective, and what it means, this year while reading Stone Butch Blues. It helped explain a LOT about the attitudes toward gender and sexuality my parents formed as young adults in the 1950's.

(One Easter break during the height of the parental weird, three relatives came to me privately on separate occasions and told me 'it's okay to be bi'. Yes. Yes, it is.)